Journal of RadioanaO, tical Chemistry, Vol. 69, No. 1-2 (1982) 349-364 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF TRACE ELEMENTS DETERMINED IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS AND ITS USE FOR CHARACTERISATION M. PEISACH, L. JACOBSON, a G. J. BOULLE, b D. GIHWALA, c L. G. UNDERHILL d Southern Universities Nuclear Institute, p.o. Box 17, Faure 7131 (South Africa) aThe State Museum, P.O. Box 1203, Windhoek, 9000 (South West Africa) bComputing Service, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700 (South Africa) CDepartment of Analytical Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700 '(South Africa) dDepartment of Statistical Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700 (South Africa} (Received July 7, 1981) Data on the concentrations of K, Ca, Ti, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ga, Rb, Sr and Zr obtained by PIXE and of B, F, Na, Mg, A1, Si and Cu obtained by proton-induced prompt gamma-ray spectrometry were used to characterize archaeological artefacts and source materials by multivariate analysis. The mathe- matical approaches employed were cluster analysis using nearest-neighbour data, multidimensional scaling and correspondence analysis. Introduction Little is known of the pre-written history of South West Africa, even over the past half millennium. Of particular interest is to establish the prehistoric routes of trade and exchange of the early inhabitants. In this context the chemical analysis of the trace element composition of artefacts could play an important role, especially if unique patterns of elemental concentrations could be recognised in source materials. As an essential preliminary it is required to compile data on widely different artefacts from all over the country and to extend the analytical data over as wide a range of elements as possible. Nuclear analytical methods are particularly suited to the analysis of trace and minor components in archaeological specimens such as potsherds and stone J. Radioanal. Chem. 69 (1982) 349